At least six people have been killed and several injured after a suicide attacker drove a bomb-laden car into a police station just outside the Somali capital, residents have told the BBC.
“Many militants have entered the town” of Afgoye, 30km (18 miles) north-west of Mogadishu, a police major said.
Islamist militant group al-Shabab says it is now in control of the town but this has not been verified.
The group has been forced out of most towns but remains in many rural areas.
Police major Nur Osman told Reuters news agency that heavy fighting was still ongoing in the town but al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said that the militants had seized control.
A witness told AFP news agency that it was unclear what was going on. “We don’t know who is controlling the city so far because heavy exchange of gunfire is going on,” he said.
Another witness said that the attack came as a surprise, adding that “people are hiding in their houses and those who stayed outside have fled”.
The Ugandan army spokesman in Somalia, Captain Jimmy Omara, told the BBC that Somali and African Union forces had been sent to the town.
African Union troops captured Afgoye town in 2012.
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